Formats and Gentrification

Bestial Fury card art

One of Magic's cool features is how it can be tweaked to produce a new experience. As I explain on the main format page, one way to do this is to changing the eligible card pool for deck construction. This post looks at how formats drive up card prices.

Card prices in Magic are due to supply and demand, which in this game is a combination of rarity, scarcity, and popularity.

- Rarity: common, uncommon, rare, and mythic. The supply is generally lower as you progress.

- Scarcity: older sets (and some special releases today) don't have large print runs, producing very limited supply in some cases. Even 'bad' cards can be expensive if they're so scarce.

- Popularity: in today's world, there are myriad sites that track the successful decks in tournaments around the world. Consistently successful ones are generally expensive (or become so) as players start to pursue these highly sought-after cards and mimic those successful decks.

While the first two categories are static, a card's popularity can vary widely based on format, which in turn can drive card prices. Some examples:

- Standard is a very common format, featuring cards from the last handful of sets. As a rotating format, cards that rotate out can see nice price drops, as they are no longer eligible for inclusion in Standard decks.

- Pioneer and Modern are non-rotating formats that always grow (as new sets come out) but do not rotate, so a card popular in that format will likely be expensive and remain so until/unless the deck it supports falls out of favor (generally by being supplanted by a better deck).

- Commander decks are fun because they are a singleton format (you may include only one copy of each card) and multiplayer (meaning games can last much longer). It is much easier to obtain one copy of an expensive card than four. Hopefully.

- Pauper decks contain only cards that have (at some point) been printed at the common rarity. The appeal of that format is affordability- because they're commons, right? It was once affordable, anyway . . . 

So here's my beef. When a new format comes out, one goal of that format is often accessibility- enabling new or budget players to jump in and be competitive. Cards that were not in competitive decks in previous formats (and thus affordable) may have a prominent place in the new landscape. But then . . . that new format coaelesces around a pool of successful decks. Everyone then wants the cards in those decks, which in turn drives up the prices of those cards. Effectively, what we have here is gentrification.

Gentrification is, based on the Google/Oxford definition, where the character of something is changed by a richer population coming in, who then displace the current crowd. In Magic, this happens in every single format. Even Pauper costs can get pretty bad. Consider the average competitive deck cost, taken from cardboardkeeper.com and based on analysis from MTGGoldfish.com:

Magic The Gathering Format	Average Competitive Deck Cost (2021)
Pauper	$46
Standard	$247
Modern	$865
Commander	$972
Legacy	$4,033
Vintage	$44,546

Now I would expect Legacy and Vintage decks to be insane- the cards in those are only from older sets that are so scarce it is nigh impossible for non-millionaires (or those who didn't collect the cards upon release 30 years ago) to enjoy that format. But almost $1000 for a competitive Commander deck, with Modern costs not far behind? And- the big one that bugs me- is Pauper. Sure, it is the cheapest at $46. You would expect it to be. But . . . $46 for a deck of just common cards, that (upon release) were likely pennies each? This all points to the reality of gentrification in Magic. We might see a new format in the future, which alters the card pool and enables use of overlooked gems, but we will end up in the same boat. If you want to be competitive, Magic is for those who are pretty well off. Or insanely so.

The best and obvious way around this all is to not play competitively (or play limited format only, where you do not rely on purchasing single chase cards). Casual is best. Enjoy this game with your friends. It is all about gathering . . . it's right there in the name.